Physical Qualities
Soft-paste porcelain with overglaze black transfer patterns and gilding, 4 3/4 x 11 1/8 in. (12.1 x 28.3 cm.)
Credit Line
Purchased in Honor of Alexander Baer's Birthday with funds contributed by his Friends
Object Number
2010.288
John Inch, a silversmith, watch-maker, and tavern proprietor who worked in Annapolis, made the oldest recorded piece of Maryland silver to survive [1]. Evidence of a long sporting tradition, the bowl is inscribed as a trophy commemorating the first recorded formal horse race in Maryland. Dungannon, a high-mettled horse imported from England by Dr. George Steuart (1700-1784), won the three mile head-to-head contest. An English porcelain bowl [2] underscores the stylistic impact of metal forms on ceramics. It is decorated with scenes from a fox hunt. During the “First (Dr. Wall) Period,” from 1751to 1783, the Worcester Tonquin Manufactory pioneered large-scale production of porcelains decorated with sophisticated transfer prints, a process introduced by English artist Robert Hancock. Hancock based his images on a 1755 engraving by Thomas Burford, which was taken from James Seymour’s painting, The Chase. Also depicting a hunt, a Chinese punch bowl [3] made at the Jingdezhen Kilns for export to the West drew on European print sources for its imagery. China’s enormous work force obviated pressure for time-saving technological advances such as those seen in England, but Western prints and drawings were often provided to show Chinese craftsmen what foreign customers wanted.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 2010; Brian Haughton Gallery, London
Brian Haughton Gallery, Exhibition Catalogue, "A Taste of Elegance: Dining in Eighteenth Century Europe", 2010
Baltimore Museum of Art. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Celebrating a Museum. Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2014.
Inscribed: label, round: Sir Jeremy Lever Collection (computer-generated) label, rectangular: 1001 (handwritten, ink)
Markings: Inscribed gilt cartouche to base: First/on this/Subject/Worcester
Manufacturer
The Worcester Tonqin Manufactory
1750–1782
1751-1783
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